Holiday read – Imposture – post II

The story is developing on two converging lines with both Polidori and Eliza pretending to be people they aren’t and fooling each other. The shadow that hangs over the developing story is Byron and it is a shame that six chapters in and all you get is a glimpse of him.

Bullet points from chapters four to six

* Eliza dreams of meeting Byron (Polidori again) and her life as a governess in a rich household is sketched out with her life by all accounts a pretty mundane and miserable one except for the moments she can escape into herself and her thoughts inspired by literature

* Meanwhile Polidori meets the publisher of The Vampyre and makes his claim for authorship and is paid off with a meal, some champagne and then £30 of which he loses half on his weakness of gambling cards – it helps pay off some debts but fails to set him up in the legal career he now desires after turning his back on medicine

* Part of the reason for turning away from medicine is that all the patients he has ever had died and even Byron pointed out how with his track record he was unsuitable for the medical profession so he sits in his rooms and believes that the only option is now to turn to writing

* He sends his memoirs of travelling with Byron to the publisher of The Vampyre and awaits his reply but after a week cannot contain himself and decides to go and visit him but on his way notices a letter from Eliza mentioning that she is going to be at the theatre that evening

* She is going because her sister is ill and believes this is her chance to take the next step with Polidori who is still a novice with women after recounting his experience with a maid who mistook him for Byron and was in the middle of foreplay before the Italian, who has a sister/brother sexual fantasy, managed to end the fun prematurely